Natalie Paneng's quirky and cool virtual universe
Johannesburg-based artist Natalie Paneng blends theater, digital art, and performance to create playful virtual worlds that examine online identity and self-presentation.
performance
Chlöe Bass: Without participation, the public falls apart
Through installations like "Wayfinding" and "The Book of Everyday Instruction," multidisciplinary artist Chloë Bass examines how public participation and intimate encounters shape our understanding of shared spaces and human connection.
LaJuné McMillian: Towards motion witnessing
Artist LaJuné McMillian transforms motion capture into "motion witnessing" through their Black Movement Library project, creating a vital archive of Black performers while challenging the biases inherent in immersive technologies.
Maya Man
At the intersection of dance and creative code, Maya Man creates browser-based experiences that transform human movement into data, examining our intimate relationships with technology.
Nick Murray: The intimacy and expanse of interactive narrative
Game designer Nick Murray crafts intimate interactive experiences that bridge poetry, music, and digital art to examine the complex emotions of life mediated by technology.
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley creates game worlds from autonomous archives
We speak with Danielle about the archive as an always-moving thing, why she’s attracted to low-fi aesthetics, and her new fascination with pirates.
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley creates game worlds from excessive and autonomous archives
Artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley creates multilayered game experiences that adapt based on player identity, building autonomous digital archives that center and protect Black trans narratives.
Fake your way through the art world in Passpartout
If you’ve ever had a table at a convention, or had your work in a gallery, you’ve experienced the sharp sting of a stranger’s silent judgement. “How are you enjoying the show?” you ask as they walk by. They look down at your work and scowl, moving on wordlessly to buy some crappy fan art from the ne
Orbyss brings the beauty of ribbon gymnastics to your phone
Super Hexagon (2012) has you think in hexagons, Orbyss in circles. Repeat that: Orbyss. Circles. Don’t stop there, either. You should chant this to yourself quietly—or just in your head—as you play Orbyss. You’re gonna need to. Circles, circles, circles. Loops, loops, loops. For if you don’t drill t
LARP game has players cope with the expectations placed on different genders
It’s not hard to understand the appeal of LARPing (live-action role playing). A player can both cosplay and let go of their inhibitions in a safe space by acting out a character-driven narrative. Though I’ve never LARPed before, actress Felicia Day convinced me of its potential for sheer fun in an e
Virtual Drag, or how to queer virtual reality
“We’re born naked, and the rest is drag.” – Ru Paul, Lettin’ It All Hang Out, 1995 /// Australian digital media artist Alison Bennett says that Virtual Drag came to her “like a bright flash.” It may not seem obvious at first, the connection between drag performance and virtual reality, but once the
Watch this guy attempt to spend 48 hours in virtual reality without sleeping
How long have you spent inside virtual reality in total—an hour? Two hours? 24 hours? It’s probably only a small number of hours as it takes quite the toll on your eyes and brain. And that’s if you don’t get the infamous nausea it brings on for a lot of people. But heck, try telling that to Thorsten
When everyday life is a performance
This Is My Costume explores life with a non-binary gender identity and its parallels with performative attire. It’s a short point-and-click adventure that was made by game design team Pride Interactive for a recent Ludum Dare, in which the theme was “You Are The Monster.” It begins with the protagon
An interactive theatre show brings out the capitalist monsters in most of us
Very few people get out of bed and plan to run a horrible sweatshop, but here they are, a collection of young, presumably liberal adults, doing just that. They are participants in Zoe Svendsen’s interactive play, World Factory, at London’s Young Vic Theatre. Audience members form teams. They sit in
In space, everyone can hear you sing along
The Universe is a Small Hat blurs the line between audience and performer.
A new virtual reality game buries you alive in an actual coffin
Taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive, is described as being “irrational.” It’s not. An irrational fear is being scared of being shot into orbit while sleeping, or crocodiles crawling down your chimney—the likelihood of either happening is super slim. But you could be buried alive tonight or t
Torrent culture realized as a terrifying cinematic mashup
“Omnipresent telecommunications surveillance gains a global face.”
Tattoos, abstracted into data and blasted onto a canvas
In 1954, a small group of Japanese artists called the Gutai (Embodiment) group became interested in revealing the inner qualities of the materials they used in their art through performance. In one piece, Akira Kanayama used a remote controlled car to spread paint on a canvas. In another, Kazuo Shir
The videogame and ghost story that led internet sleuths to break into a Texas cemetery
im null makes a performance out of virtual horror art.
Live-action graphic novel stars sludge-monsters from the planet Zygon
Comicbook commedia dell’arte.
Human Harp lends grace to industrial spaces
Di Mainstone is an artist whose work bridges the gap between sculpture and the human body. She entwines the two, creating wearable, touchable, playable apparatuses that range from pulsing Cronenberg-style bioforms to a neck-mounted motion-based instrument that transforms its wearer into a one-woman
The Argentinian arcade cabinet NAVE turns play into a performance
Just like the good ol’ days.
